Valve

ABSTRACT

A valve ( 10 ) has a valve housing ( 12 ), at least one inlet conduit ( 14 ) and at least one outlet conduit ( 16 ), a movable lifting rod ( 28 ), one end of which discharges into an actuator ( 68 ), and at least one valve member ( 30 ), which is secured to the lifting rod ( 28 ) and cooperates with at least one valve seat ( 20 ). The at least one valve member ( 30 ) upon opening of the at least one outlet conduit ( 16 ) emerges from the valve housing ( 12 ) of the valve ( 10 ).

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The invention is based on a valve with a valve housing and inlet andoutlet conduits, as well as a moveable lifting rod, one end of whichdischarges into an actuator. The valve further includes a valve memberthat is secured to the lifting rod and cooperates with at least onevalve seat.

Such valves are known, for instance from German Patent Disclosure DE 19753 575 A1. The valve described in DE 197 53 575 A1 is a magnetic bypassvalve for a fluid-regulated heating or cooling system. Two valve memberssecured to a lifting rod of the valve regulate the flow between oneinlet conduit and two outlet conduits; one of these outlet conduitsassumes the function of a bypass conduit in the heating and coolingloop. One disadvantage of the valve described in DE 197 53 575 A1 is thegreat structural length of the valve, which claims a correspondinglylarge amount of installation space for the valve.

A further disadvantage of the valve described in DE 197 53 575 A1 isthat in such valves, the valve member that controls the flow is itselfan obstacle to the flow in the valve and thus affects the flow crosssection in the region of the valve seat. One possible known solution tothis problem is to increase the diameter of the outlet conduit of thevalve. Enlarging the outlet conduit in turn means enlarging theinstallation volume required for the valve. Another disadvantage is thatin that case the inlet conduit and the outlet conduit of the valve havedifferent diameters. This requires the use of different connection hosesfor the valve, which unnecessarily complicates the system.

In seeking to overcome this latter problem of the connection diameters,it is naturally possible first to enlarge the diameter of the outletconduit and then keep the flow cross section around the valve memberconstant and then reduce the diameter again to the desired hose size.Not only does this rather contrived embodiment means a complex and thusexpensive construction; inevitably it also means an increase in thestructural length of the valve, with the familiar consequences in termsof the installation volume for the valve.

The described adaptation of the flow cross section of the valve isinconvenient, complex and thus too expensive for mass production.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The valve of the invention has the advantage, among others, that thestructural length of the valve and along with it the installation volumeof the valve can be reduced.

The valve according to the invention as proposed here opens in such away that the valve cone emerges from the valve housing. On the one hand,this reduces the structural length of the valve, and at the same time italso offers the possibility of enlarging the flow diameter in the regionof the valve cone. A complicated adaptation of the cross section insidethe valve housing, which was previously necessary to adapt the flowcross section in the valve, becomes superfluous.

The valve seat of the valve of the invention is advantageously mountedon one end of the valve housing. As a result, upon opening of the valve,the valve member can move out of the valve housing and into an existingconnection hose.

The connection hose of the valve leading to the other components of theapplicable system is utilized, in the valve according to the invention,to give the valve member the necessary space upon opening: When thevalve of the invention opens, the valve member moves out of the valvehousing and into the connection hose that has been slipped over theoutlet conduit. The connection hose seated on the outlet conduitprovides an increase in cross section, which is utilized in the valve ofthe invention to make a correspondingly increased flow volume availablein the region of the opened valve member. It is thus possible to attainthat the flow cross section of the medium flowing through the valve isapproximately the same in the region of the valve member as the flowcross section upstream of the valve member. The thus essentiallyconstant flow volume in the valve minimizes the pressure drop across thevalve. An excessive pressure drop across the valve is something thatshould be avoided.

Since in the valve housing itself no adaptation of the flow volume hasto be made, the construction of the valve can be kept relatively simple.In particular, it is possible to dispense with an enlargement in theoutlet conduit diameter of the valve for increasing the flow crosssection in the region of the valve member. The valve is thus simplifiedmarkedly, since the requisite subsequent re-reduction in the diameter toadapt the connection cross sections can also be dispensed with. Thus thevalve of the invention allows the use of hose material of only a singlediameter, or makes complicated and expensive cross-sectionaladaptations, which can also cause a pressure change across the valve,unnecessary.

The valve seats of the valve can be made integrally in the valvehousing, which represents an additional simplification in the structureand thus a further reduction in the production cost of the valve of theinvention. In particular, the valve seat can be disposed on the end ofthe valve housing. Depending on the design of the valve member, it thenemerges to a greater or lesser extent from the valve housing uponopening of the valve, or in an extreme case does not emerge at all.

The valve of the invention, which when there is a flow around the valvecone shifts the requisite increase in valve conduit diameter into theconnection hose itself, thus assures the requisite flow cross sectionwhile at the same time reducing the structural length of the valve.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

One exemplary embodiment of the invention, which is explained in greaterdetail in the ensuing description, is shown in the drawing.

Shown are:

FIG. 1, a cross section through a valve according to the invention; and

FIG. 2, a detail of the cross section of the valve of the invention inaccordance with FIG. 1, in the open valve position.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

The valve 10 of the invention, shown in cross section in FIG. 1, has avalve housing 12, leading into which are one inlet conduit 14, a firstoutlet conduit 16, and a second outlet conduit 18. In the exemplaryembodiment shown, the valve housing 12 has two valve seats 20 and 22.The respective valve seats 20 and 22 of the valve 10, in the exemplaryembodiment shown, are made integrally from the valve housing 12 and eachhave a respective valve opening 24 and 26. The inlet conduit 14discharges into the valve housing 12 between the valve seats 22 and 24of the valve 10 of the invention. The valve opening 24 connects theinlet conduit 14 to the first outlet conduit 16 and to a connection hose27. This connection hose 27 is slipped over the valve opening 24 andlengthens the outlet conduit 16 of the valve 10. The valve opening 26connects the inlet conduit 14 to the second outlet conduit 18.

Leading through the valve housing 12 is a lifting rod 28, with a firstvalve member 30—in FIG. 1, the lower valve member—which is located inthe first outlet conduit 16 on the side of the valve seat 20 remote fromthe inlet conduit 14. The valve member 30 comprises a lower sealing cone34, on the side of the valve member 30 remote from the inlet conduit 14,and an upper sealing cone 38, on the side of the valve member 30 towardthe inlet conduit 14. An elastic sealing element 36 is placed betweenthe two sealing cones 34 and 38 of the valve member 30. The valve member30 cooperates with the valve seat 20 of the valve housing 12 andcontrols the first outlet conduit 16. Thus the outlet conduit 16 isclosed—as shown in FIG. 1—for instance if the sealing element 36 of thevalve member 30 is seated solidly on the valve seat 20. In the versionof the valve according to the invention, the valve member 30 is securedto the lifting rod 28 by a securing shim 46. It is also possible tosecure it by wedging the sealing cone 34 into a groove of the liftingrod 28 or by means of material comprising the lifting rod 28 that ispressed against the valve member 30.

On the side of the valve seat 22 remote from the inlet conduit 14, thelifting rod 28 has a second valve member 32. The valve member 32, whichprovides a connection between the inlet conduit 14 and the second outletconduit 18, likewise comprises one lower sealing cone 40, orientedtoward the inlet conduit, and one upper sealing cone 44, oriented towardthe second outlet conduit 18. An elastic sealing element 42 is placedbetween the two sealing cones 40 and 44 of the valve member 32.

The end of the lifting rod 28 opposite the first valve member 30—theupper end in FIG. 1—is extended out of the valve housing 12 through asealing cuff 48, which contacts the lifting rod 28, and through asupporting wall 50 and discharges into a coil housing 52.

An electromagnetic coil 54 with windings 56 on a coil carrier 58 and amagnet core 60 are located in the coil housing 52. The end of thelifting rod 28 extended into the coil housing has an armature 62, whichis solidly connected to the lifting rod 28 and which is movable togetherwith the lifting rod 28 in the axial direction in an armature guide 64in the interior of the coil 54. Support springs 66 that act counter tothe magnet core 60 of the coil 54 are mounted on the armature 62. Thearmature 62 and the lifting rod 28 fixed in it are surrounded by thewindings 56 of the coil 54. In conjunction with an electric currentflowing through the windings 56 of the coil 54 and with the armaturesecured to the lifting rod 28, the electromagnetic coil 54 forms theactuator 68 of the valve 10 in this exemplary embodiment. Depending onthe flow of current through the windings 56 of the coil 54, the armature62 and thus the lifting rod 28 secured to the armature, with its valvemembers 30 and 32, assume various switching positions of the valve 10.The end of the lifting rod 28 toward the armature and the coil 54surrounding that end are protected from the outside by the coil housing52. An O-ring 70 seals off both the armature guide 64 and the coilcarrier 58 from the coil housing 52. The coil housing 52 is secured tothe valve housing 12 via the supporting wall 50.

FIG. 2 shows a detail of the cross section of the valve 10 of theinvention, with the first outlet conduit 16 open. The inlet conduit 14and the outlet conduit 16 are shown. Also visible is the lower end,remote from the actuator, of the lifting rod 28 that has the valvemember 30.

In this view of the valve 10 of the invention, the sealing element 36 ofthe valve member 30 has been lifted from the valve seat 20, embodiedhere directly on the end of the valve housing 12, by actuation of theactuator 68 and has uncovered the valve opening 24. For that purpose,the valve member 30 secured to the lifting rod 28 emerges from theoutlet conduit 16 and thus from the valve housing 12 of the valve 10entirely and is guided in the connection hose 27 in such a way that thelarger cross section of the connection hose 27, which in this exemplaryembodiment is slipped over the outlet conduit 16, makes a larger flowcross section around the valve member 30 possible. To close the outletconduit 16, the valve member 30 is pulled back out of the hose 27 andback onto the valve seat 20 embodied on the inside of the valve housing12 of the valve 10.

The invention is not limited to the described exemplary embodiment of anelectromagnetic valve with two valve members.

It can equally advantageously be realized in a valve that has only oneoutlet conduit and thus has only one valve member on the lifting rod.The valve housing itself, in other exemplary embodiments, can also havean specially made valve chamber as well. Nor is the valve of theinvention necessarily associated with the use of an electromagneticactuator.

The valve of the invention is not limited to the use of valve seatsembodied integrally on the valve housing. In other embodiments of thevalve of the invention, both the shape and the material of both thevalve seats and the valve members can be varied.

Other possibilities for connecting the valve of the invention besidesthose described in the exemplary embodiment are also conceivable. Thevalve is not limited to the use of a connection hose. For instance, thevalve member could also move directly into an add-on part—which forinstance is flanged to the outlet conduit.

What is claimed is:
 1. A magnetic valve for water-related control of a heating/cooling system of a motor vehicle, having a valve housing, having at least one inlet conduit and at least one outlet conduit, having a movable lifting rod one end of which discharges into an electromagnetic actuator, and having at least one valve member, which is secured to the lifting rod and cooperates with at least one valve seat, wherein in a first switch position of the actuator, the at least one valve member creates a connection between the at least one inlet conduit and the at least one outlet conduit and wherein in a second switch position of the actuator, the at least one valve member disables the connection, wherein the at least one valve member emerges from the valve housing upon opening of the valve, wherein the valve housing has a second outlet conduit with an associated valve member and valve seat.
 2. The valve of claim 1, wherein the at least one valve member, upon opening of the valve, moves into a connection line of the valve, which line communicates with the valve housing.
 3. The valve of claim 2, wherein the at least one valve member, upon opening of the valve, emerges so far out of the valve housing and moves so far into the connection line seated on an outlet conduit of the valve that the flow cross section of the medium flowing through the valve is approximately the same both upstream and downstream of the at least one valve member.
 4. The valve of claim 1, wherein diameters of the at least one inlet conduit (14) and of the at least one outlet conduit (16) of the valve (10) are approximately equal.
 5. The valve of claim 4, wherein the valve seat of the at least one valve member is made integrally on the valve housing.
 6. The valve of claim 1, a diameter of the second outlet conduit of the valve is equal to a diameter of the at least one inlet conduit of the valve.
 7. The valve of claim 1, wherein the valve seat of the at least one valve member is disposed on one end of the valve housing. 